BSC-CNS Newsletter May 2019

The role of humans in extreme climate events may not be what was believed so far. Researchers of BSC have pointed out that the climate model ensembles commonly used for event attribution show systematic inconsistencies with the real-world climate. Our researchers have developed a correction method that ensures the probability of climate extremes in the model simulations to be consistent with real-world observations.

BSC participates in a paper, published in Nature Climate Change, which is the first to quantify and contrast the magnitude and impacts of several prominent marine heatwaves using the same methods and metrics. In doing so, the researchers show that marine heatwaves have negative effects on a broad range of marine organisms, with major socioeconomic and political ramifications.

Mutations in L-amino acid transporters (LATs) can lead to a wide range of conditions, such as autism, hearing loss and aminoacidurias. This study, published in the journal Nature Communications presents key data on how amino acids bind to these transporters. The work is a collaboration between IRB Barcelona, CIBERER, IBMB-CSIC and BSC.

CYBELE will focus on the emerging field of precision agriculture, specifically precision livestock farming. The project aims to demonstrate how the convergence of HPC, big data, cloud computing and the internet of things (IoT) can revolutionize farming, reduce scarcity and increase food supplies, resulting in social, economic and environmental benefits.

The director of BSC received the prize Research Excellence of CénitS (Extremadura Center for Research, Technological Innovation and Supercomputing). The awards ceremony took place in the framework of the commemorative act of the 10^th Anniversary of the creation of CénitS by the Computaex Foundation. CénitS manages the Lusitania supercomputer, one of the nodes of the RES, which is coordinated by BSC.

The Operations Director of BSC, Sergi Girona, was recognized with the Alan Turing award to the CIO of the year during the 24^th Night of Telecommunications and Information Technology. The event is jointly organized by Telecos.cat and COEINF. This award recognizes the CIO who has stood out for his professional work at state level during 2018.